Rockets GM: Royce White is ‘worst first-round pick ever’

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has a team competing for a championship this season.

He’s put together one of the premier rosters in the NBA with Dwight Howard, Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, and James Harden.

But he’s not afraid to admit his mistakes either.

In the 2012 NBA Draft, the Rockets took forward Royce White out of Iowa State with the 16th overall pick.

White didn’t just turn out to be a bust, he never stepped on the court with the Rockets.

"I take some sort of pride that you could argue that Royce White is the worst first-round pick ever," Morey told ClutchFans. "He’s the only one that never played a minute in the NBA that wasn’t just a foreign guy staying in Europe. It just shows we swing for the fence."

White has an anxiety disorder and fear of flying which kept him from playing in the NBA. White only agreed to travel by bus when he played for the Rockets’ D-League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

He was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in July 2013, but still has yet to play a game in the NBA after the team released him in October.